Disclaimer: I don't own the Alex Rider series.

Warnings: Swearing and lack of proofreading

Soldier On

Chapter Eight

"This plan is ridiculous," Matt exclaimed, running a hand through his damp, black hair.

"All my plans are ridiculous. That's what makes them my plans," Alex replied calmly. "I once snowboarded down a mountain on an ironing board while being chased by men riding snowmobiles and wielding guns. Then I jumped onto a moving train." Alex paused for a moment, "Although that was more like a series of spontaneous decisions, than a plan."

"Do I want to know how you survived this long?" Cal asked, staring incredulously at the teen spy.

"I've been told I have the luck of the devil. Apparently it runs in the family," Alex shrugged, "which is concerning considering the fact that I don't have any family left."

"Thanks, that made me feel so much better," Matt answered through his best sarcastic smile.

"Hey, it was this or we Shawshanked it out of here." Matt's reply came in the form of an inaudible grumble.

The building was mostly solid concrete but there was a small opening covered by only a thin metal grate. Small enough to fit four, still growing, teenagers. Sure, it was a somewhat unforgivable flaw in the prison design but it was the best way to keep the air flow; dead prisoners meant that torturers were no longer able to get torturous jobs and feed their tortourer families. Plus climbing through air ducts never gets old. No matter how often you see it on television.

The hardest part was getting Alex up into the small space. Matt pulled himself up into the vent easily enough but the bullet in the teen spy's leg stopped him from doing any of his normal acrobatic stunts. Alex instead stood on Danny shoulders while Matt pulled him up.

"This looks so much easier on television," Matt complained.

No less than ten exhausting minutes later the four boys were doing their best to quietly crawl through the air vents.

"Woah, what is that?" Danny whispered.

"Sorry," Cal replied. Alex frowned.

"Keep your gas to yourself, please."

"Please tell me you guys didn't just made a fart joke," Danny said, hanging his head in shame.

"Alex, you have such good manners. I will do my utter best to comply with your request," Cal smiled.

"Shut up and crawl," Matt commanded

Cal gave the boy a look; a giant, blue-eyed, puppy dog look, refusing to move an inch.

"Please!" Matt hissed.

"No wait." Alex stopped and looked through the grate below him, a terrifying mischievous grin spreading across his face, "Weapons."

The three uninjured had boys jumped into the room below and were now rifling through the storage room.

"There's nothing usable here, it's all crap," Matt complained, tossing something back into the container he found it in.

"Scorpia just doesn't have the supplies it used to. My fault I guess," Alex's said, scanning the room underneath him.

"You know, your cockiness has gone from a modest three to pushing ten since we entered this building," Danny commented. Alex gave the teen a wry smile.

The three teens continued to scavenge unsuccessfully.

"Is it just me or is it too quiet," Alex mussed, breaking the awkward silence.

"We're trying to be quiet because being loud would alert the mass murderers of our escape," Danny explained.

"No, I mean, I haven't seen anyone. No guards or any other sign of life."

"Could they be on lunch break?" Cal asked.

"We need to forget sneaking around in vents and get out of here. Now." The tone in Alex's voice was deadly serious. Deadly.

"What?" Danny asked.

"Go!" Alex ordered. Slightly shaken, but functioning enough to react, the four boys helped the teen spy out of the vent. He gasped in pain when he was forced to put weight on the injured limb, only just managing to stop his slight stumble from turning into a face plant by leaning heavily into the wall. Swallowing heavily Alex and the other boys navigated their way to a fire escape.

They were almost safely to the ground when a shockwave sent them sprawling on to the concrete. Panic and confusion filled the air. Alex's was the first head to whip around and take in the scene; adrenaline momentarily numbing the pain in his leg. Another shockwave took over and Danny found himself covering his ears in a pathetic attempt to block out the booming noise. He knew exactly what had happened when he felt immense heat on his back.

"They... blew up the... building?!" the dark haired boy exclaimed between gasps of air, "Why'd they... blow up the building?"

"Yeah, they had us. Why not just shoot us?" Cal asked, shakily getting up and brushing debris off his jeans. The teen's heart was racing and he found that his legs had turned to jelly.

"I don't know. Explosions are more fun to watch?" Matt guessed, also getting to his feet and pulling Alex up with him. Alex leaned heavily on the older boy, his leg feeling less like a leg and more like a ball of throbbing hurt attached to his hip.

"No, it was because Jared couldn't shoot us. It was too personal. This way he could be as far away as he wanted," Alex answered tiredly.

"So what do we do now?" Cal asked.

"I don't know. Usually I'd be passed out by now and someone would come and get me."

"That's zero of two," Matt sighed.

"Actually…" Alex trailed off. Matt was able to catch the injured teen before he hit the ground. The two ended up back on the concrete, Alex's head leaning on the older boy's lap.

"Alex?" Danny asked.

"He passed out," Matt said.

"One of two," Cal uncertainly presented.

"Anyone need a ride?" a familiar voice behind the group asked. If Alex was anything he was most certainly consistent.

As it turned out the man who had offered them a ride was no other than Ben Daniels aka Fox. He flashed them his credentials and helped them get the unconscious boy into the back seat of the vehicle.

They were now driving exactly 103km/hr towards Hamilton on the Southern motorway. "We'll get you boys to safe house, you can sleep, shower and eat once we arrive. After that we can debrief you and go from there," Ben explained.

The boys nodded silently.

"Honey, 'm home." Alex' speech was slurred and he didn't move from his slumped position again the door.

Ben let out a smile that didn't quite erase the worry from his eyes, "it's good to see you too, kid."

"How'd you know where to fin' us?" He asked, peering at the soldier through heavy lidded eyes.

"I was keeping track of you but for some ridiculous reason none of you thought it would be a good idea to take your cellphones on your little escapade, so I was a little delayed," Ben answered.

"You were tracking my phone? Creepy stalker."

"Obviously I wasn't a good enough stalker," the ex-SAS apologized.

"I's all good, I'm going to go back to sleep now. You're being too sappy." Alex poked out his tongue and then chocolate eyes fluttered closed again.

Danny stared at himself in the mirror. On the surface he was a mess. He was covered head to toe in dirt; which made his hair about three shades darker and his normally pale skin had almost completely disappeared under the grime. There was a blossom of colour down the side of his face from when he'd been hit by a bit of rubble. At least that's what he presumed had happened. Three hours ago it'd felt like everything was running in slow motion, now it all just seemed like a bright orange blur and he couldn't distinguish between what was real and what had simply been part of the twisted nightmare. He turned on the shower and tried to wash as much of the reminder away as he could.

Cal had become oddly quiet once they arrived at the safe house. Now that he wasn't running for his life he had time to think. The blonde teen chewed slowly on a piece of cheese pizza, staring off into space as he was so often caught doing. Despite what other people seemed to believe, Cal was a great thinker. He could entertain himself for hours just thinking out adventures and could spend just as long dwelling on the past and sorting them into compartments in his brain. Danny had once told him that it was called compartmentalizing or something. He supposed it was what made him such a laid back person; calm in tough situations and able to respond quicker than most, but at the moment his mind was too cluttered. Too full of things that weren't ready to be pushed into storage.

Matt puffed his chest out in order to compensate for the complete unsteadiness he was feeling right now. Apart from a minor sprained wrist and a few bruises and grazes he was physically fine, which is why he was having trouble understanding. He always thought that if it wasn't life threatening then it didn't matter; and yet he felt his hands shaking, his breath was heaving and there were hot tears threatening to spill down his face. Before he would have told anyone who had been through his own experiences (and reacted the way he was now) to harden up. He would say that spending just over a day in a locked room really wasn't that bad. But somehow it was bad and it really hurt.

And Alex? Alex slept through the whole thing.

"So, let me get this straight in my head."

Debrief began when Mrs. Jones appeared on the widescreen television in the conference room of the safe house. But she wasn't talking right now. Right now Alex was ranting; currently enforcing his own coping mechanisms.

"You orchestrated this whole thing; picked kids from my school and sent us to the middle of fucking no where, all so you could draw out some psycho who thought he could take down MI6. Thats... that's just fucking unintelligent." There was a moment of silence, "And you know what? A heads up would have been nice too."

The teen spy looked utterly frustrated at the woman, predominantly because he was currently confined to one of the plain chairs in the conference room, his gauze-covered leg propped up on and cushioned on one of the other chairs.

"Alex, we believe that Jared posts a real threat to MI6, especially with Scorpia backing him. However the idea was not to draw him out. It was to simply get him as far away as we could but still keep him under watch. I admit that the mission was not properly evaluated and as a result you and your teammates were put in danger. We do...apologize for this and can assure your safety here until we apprehend the boy."

"No, he got one up on me," Alex announced, with murder in his eyes, "I'm getting even."

Mrs. Jones looked at the boy in astonishment and there was silence in the room.

"Count me in," Danny said. He couldn't be quiet, book smart Danny anymore. He was tear our your heart with his bare hands Danny now. Alex looked up at his teammate but didn't stop him.

"Me too," Cal stood up.

Matt remained staring at the discrepancies in the large wooden table below his palms. He released a long sigh and shook his head. "I'm sorry guys, I just... I can't. I'm sorry."

"It's ok," Alex said, "we need someone to stay here and co-ordinate."

And that was all Matt needed to hear. He raised his head and smiled a thank you and the fair haired teen. "I think I can do that," he replied.

Alex turned to his now official team members.

"Allons-y!"

Hey guys, all I can say is sorry and I hope that there still people out there who are wanting to know what happens.

Till next time!